Thailand, Israel to expand trade, investment

BANGKOK, June 18 (TNA) - Thailand and Israel have set a joint target on increasing the total value of two-way trade to about 2 billion US dollars by 2020, along with expanding bilateral cooperation in investment and tourism. Permanent Secretary for Commerce Nuntawan Sakuntanaga told journalists of the update on June 17, after leading a Thai delegation to visit Israel recently to attend the Israel-Thailand Joint Trade Committee (JTC), the second of its kind. Nuntawan said at the meeting, led by Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Economy and Industry Ohad Cohen for the Israeli side, her team also invited Israel to expand investment projects to the Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi), supported by the Thai government, in areas where Israeli investors have well-experiences, namely those in the medical, the farm, the bio-technologicial, the bio-energy and the bio-chemical sectors, as well as in the water management system. Nuntawan revealed that as Israel is a nation having developed high technologies and innovations, her team sought Jerusalem‎'s cooperation on science and innovations, aimed to add more values and to enhance the production efficiency of Thai farm products. Besides, the Thai and the Israeli delegations discussed bilateral cooperation between Bangkok and Jerusalem on research and development projects for the cyber safety and Israel invited Thailand to participate in the HLS & Cyber 2018, set to be held in Tel Aviv during November 12-15, while Thailand invited Israel to participate in the Digital Thailand Big Bang, scheduled to be held in Bangkok during September 19-23, 2018. According to the senior official, Israel is also considering to open its door for Thai exports of Longan and pineapple, while the Thai delegation invited more Israeli tourists to visit the Thai Kingdom, where there are health and traditional Thai styled-tourist attractions to welcome them. Based on official statistics, Israel is now Thailand's number one tourism market and number 5 trading partner in the Middle East, while Thailand is Israel's number one trading partner in the ASEAN Community (AC) and number 19 on the global board. In 2017 alone, bilateral trade between Thailand and Israel stood at about 1.30 billion US dollars, a 21.74 per cent year-on-year increase, with major Thai exports to the Israeli market including automobiles, parts and accessories, gems and jewelry products and furniture, as well as rice and other consumer goods, while Thai investors running tourism businesses and restaurants, as well as producing Kosher food products, based on the Jewish dietary law, to serve local consumers. (TNA)